WASHINGTON ― Months after confirming Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court docket amid sexual assault allegations, Republicans are shifting ahead together with his substitute on a decrease courtroom: a nominee with a report of weakening protections for sexual assault survivors and who as soon as argued that girls can keep away from date rape by staying “moderately sober.”

Neomi Rao, whom President Donald Trump tapped to fill Kavanaugh’s former seat on the District of Columbia Circuit Court docket of Appeals, is getting her Senate affirmation listening to on Tuesday. And Democrats on the Judiciary committee are anticipated to pounce.

Rao, a 45-year-old lawyer, runs the federal Workplace of Info and Regulatory Affairs. She’s by no means been a choose, however she is on Trump’s shortlist of Supreme Court docket nominees. She clerked for Supreme Court docket Justice Clarence Thomas, labored within the White Home counsel’s workplace underneath President George W. Bush and was a professor at George Mason College College of Regulation.

Rao has come underneath hearth for controversial articles she wrote from 1992 to 1996 ― she graduated from Yale College in 1995 ― on sexual assault, LGBTQ rights, race, and local weather change. Past that, in her position at OIRA, a division of the Workplace of Administration and Price range that evaluates federal authorities laws, she has helped the Trump administration weaken insurance policies on all of these fronts.

Her previous writings on sexual assault increase questions on her bid for a lifetime federal courtroom seat.

In a 1994 op-ed in The Yale Herald, titled “Shades of Grey,” Rao argued that “a girl, like a person, decides when and the way a lot to drink. And if she drinks to the purpose the place she will be able to not select, nicely, attending to that time was a part of her selection.” She wrote that “a great way to keep away from a possible date rape is to remain moderately sober.”

In an April 1993 piece within the Yale Free Press, titled “The Feminist Dilemma,” Rao argued that the “controversy” over sexual assault and date rape “has been painted when it comes to ‘sure’ and ‘no’, lowering intercourse to one thing merely consensual.” She stated “non-verbal communication performs an plain position,” and although she is “not arguing that date rape victims ask for it, when enjoying the trendy relationship sport girls have to know and settle for the implications of their sexuality.”

Since November 2017, she’s stalled proposed steering from the Equal Employment Alternative Fee to offer employers extra data on deal with sexual misconduct. And underneath her management, OIRA signed off on a proposed rule change by Training Secretary Betsy DeVos that would chop the definition of sexual harassment and assault on school campuses and strengthen the rights of the accused.

Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

Neomi Rao reacts to President Donald Trump saying that she is his selection for filling Brett Kavanaugh’s former seat on the D.C. Circuit Court docket of Appeals.

Democrats will probably be grilling Rao on loads of matters in Tuesday’s listening to, partially as a result of some on the committee ― Sens. Kamala Harris (Calif.) and Cory Booker (N.J.) ― just lately introduced presidential bids and can need the limelight. However it’s additionally as a result of so a lot of Rao’s previous writings on points like race, sexuality and science are ripe for scrutiny.

She wrote in February 1995 that “Yale has devoted itself to a comparatively agency meritocracy, which drops its requirements just for a couple of minorities, some legacies and a soccer participant right here or there.” When she was a junior at Yale, she wrote one other article titled ”Separate however Extra Than Equal,” through which she denounced “particular therapy for minority college students” and instructed that college students of coloration have an unfair benefit by having “ethnic deans” dedicated to helping them.

She wrote in November 1994 that the push for LGBTQ rights was a “fashionable political motion.” She warned in July 1994 that “multiculturalists are attempting to “undermine American tradition.”

In April 1992, Rao wrote that “the greenhouse impact, the depleting ozone layer, and the hazards of acid rain” are “three main environmental bogeymen.”

She’s affected insurance policies on all of those fronts at OIRA. Beneath her management, the company has reviewed and is within the technique of working with the Division of Housing and City Improvement to roll again protectionsin opposition to housing discrimination primarily based on race. She permitted a proposal to rescind the Clear Energy Plan, a public safety program that decreased greenhouse gasoline emissions from energy vegetation. OIRA can be finalizing a new coverage proposed by the Division of Well being and Human Companies that will permit well being care suppliers to refuse to offer care to sufferers on the grounds of “conscientious objections,” as in LGBTQ sufferers or girls looking for reproductive care.

If confirmed, Rao can be the second Indian-American after Sri Srinivasan to land a seat on the D.C. Circuit, which is taken into account the second strongest courtroom within the nation.

However, in contrast to Srinivasan, Rao has drawn opposition from outstanding Indian-People, corresponding to Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Vanita Gupta, the president and CEO of The Management Convention on Civil and Human Rights. Teams together with the NAACP and Human Rights Marketing campaign have additionally denounced Rao’s nomination, which implies Tuesday’s listening to could possibly be explosive if Democrats are ready to channel that outrage.

“Neomi Rao is the final one who ought to sit on this courtroom,” stated NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson. “The Rao nomination is an insult to communities of coloration, girls, individuals with disabilities, and the LGBTQ group. In fact, the nomination is an insult to all People.”

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